Saturday, May 14, 2011

Friday the 13th

Nothing much happened until Friday (today.) We had the electricians in today for the full day. They installed new lighting in a couple of classrooms and the front lobby.We now have lumens to burn. They also installed a number of plugs and cleaned up the front area to free it from unsightly power cables.Also we are getting a new set of blinds for the new staff room for Monday or Tuesday.

We also have changed our school staffroom into a classroom and changed our meeting room into a staffroom. Actually, we still have a pile of furniture to shift so that is going to be a job for Saturday.On Monday we have a special group of Saudi students in on a 4 hour per week 2 month contract to study for IELTS. That means that we will be at full capacity again (at least for a short time).

If that wasn’t exciting enough we managed to squeeze in free flu shots for the staff after three as WELL as a staff meeting!!!!

Can ANYONE live life as close to the edge as I do!!

I seem to take similar shots from year to year but here they go again.This is a shot looking East over the Pacific and the direction of South America. Once you get over the horizon there is nothing much apart from waves for the next 3 thousand kilometres so from that direction there isn’t much shipping to be seen apart from the odd cruise ship heading down to Stewart Island and then up to Australia.

One of the problems with the city is the sheer number of heritage buildings which were built during the goldrush era 1860-80s which are not really suited to become commercial premises. The city council wants to keep them but no business really wants to move into them. They can be done up but without massive upgrading they are not really worth buying as an investment.The vicious circle means that they stand unoccupied and not looked after – but can’t be torn down because they are heritage buildings. In fact about a month ago one of the frontages of one of these buildings collapsed onto the street without any warning. The city council is going to have to bite the bullet and allow a new Dunedin to emerge rather than keep some of these cute but unusable dinosaurs.

This is a shot of the Otago Daily Times building. Ancient –still used and very pretty. I walk past this lovely building every day and wish to stand at the top of that cupola just to see what the view would be like.

This is a shot of the Cobb and Co Restaurant and the balcony where the Queen stood when she visited Dunedin in 1953.It seems that the new owners of the building have blocked off the door the the balcony where Her Majesty stood.